Gabriel Kuhn

Gabriel was born in Austria but soon began moving around with his artist parents. He grew up in various countries, including Turkey, Italy, England and the US, but returned to Austria for most of his formal education and a four-year semi-professional soccer career. In 1996 he received a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Innsbruck. The following ten years he spent hitchhiking and couchsurfing around five continents. He moved to Sweden in 2006.

Active in radical politics since the late 1980s, publishing projects have always been a focus. In the early 1990s, Gabriel worked with the Austrian autonomist journal TATblatt and anarchist publisher Monte Verita, before turning his attention to DIY zine publishing. Alpine Anarchist Productions was founded in 2000, and distributes pamphlets to this day. Since 2005 Gabriel has been working closely with radical German publisher Unrast. His book "'Neuer Anarchismus' in den USA. Seattle und die Folgen" was named "Book of the Year 2008" by Berlin's Library of the Free. Gabriel also contributes regularly to the Swedish anarchist journal Brand.

Gabriel Kuhn has been refused entry to the US! To read more please check out the links below:

Soccer has turned into a multi-billion-dollar industry. Professionalism and commercialization dominate its global image. Yet the game retains a rebellious side, maybe more so than any other sport co-opted by moneymakers and corrupt politicians. From its roots in working-class England to political protests by players and fans, and a current radical soccer underground, the notion of football as the “people’s game” has been kept alive by numerous individuals, teams, and communities.

This book not only traces this history but also reflects on common criticisms—that soccer ferments nationalism, serves right-wing powers, and fosters competitiveness—exploring alternative perspectives and practical examples of egalitarian DIY soccer. Soccer vs. the State serves both as an orientation for the politically conscious football supporter and as an inspiration for those who try to pursue the love of the game away from televisions and big stadiums, bringing it to back alleys and muddy pastures.

This second edition has been expanded to cover events of recent years, including the involvement of soccer fans in the Middle Eastern uprisings of 2011–2013, the FIFA scandal of 2015, and the 2017 strike by the Danish women’s team.

Praise:“Gabriel Kuhn’s Soccer vs. the State is a wondrous reminder of all the times and ways and places where football has slipped its chains and offers what it always promised: new solidarities and identities, a site of resistance, a celebration of spontaneity and play.”—David Goldblatt, author of The Ball Is Round and The Game of Our Lives

“There is no sport that reflects the place where sports and politics collide quite like soccer. Athlete-activist Gabriel Kuhn has captured that by going to a place where other sports writers fear to tread. Here is the book that will tell you how soccer explains the world while offering means to improve it.”—Dave Zirin, author of Game Over and Brazil's Dance with the Devil

“Gabriel Kuhn has written the programme notes for the most important match of all, The People’s Game vs. Modern Football.”—Mark Perryman, cofounder of Philosophy Football

“Kuhn is impressive in his global and historical scope, and in acknowledging gender and sexuality questions as well as those of class and race, as he looks at issues ranging from the exploitation of African players to the way the World Cup has been abused politically.”—Tom Davies, When Saturday Comes

“Both the politics and the prose of Soccer vs. the State are clear. The view is internationalist, and the breadth of subjects covered makes the book useful for both football fans and activists.”—Daniel Widener, Radical History Review

The Austromarxist era of the 1920s was a unique chapter in socialist history. Trying to carve out a road between reformism and Bolshevism, the Austromarxists embarked on an ambitious journey towards a socialist oasis in the midst of capitalism. Their showpiece, the legendary “Red Vienna,” has worked as a model for socialist urban planning ever since.

At the heart of the Austromarxist experiment was the conviction that a socialist revolution had to entail a cultural one. Numerous workers’ institutions and organizations were founded, from education centers to theaters to hiking associations. With the Fascist threat increasing, the physical aspects of the cultural revolution became ever more central as they were considered mandatory for effective defense. At no other time in socialist history did armed struggle, sports, and sobriety become as intertwined in a proletarian attempt to protect socialist achievements as they did in Austria in the early 1930s. Despite the final defeat of the workers’ militias in the Austrian Civil War of 1934 and subsequent Fascist rule, the Austromarxist struggle holds important lessons for socialist theory and practice.

Antifascism, Sports, Sobriety contains an introductory essay by Gabriel Kuhn and selected writings by Julius Deutsch, leader of the workers’ militias, president of the Socialist Workers’ Sport International, and a prominent spokesperson for the Austrian workers’ temperance movement. Deutsch represented the physical defense of the working class against its enemies like few others. His texts in this book are being made available in English for the first time.

Praise:

“An almost completely forgotten episode in labor history.” —Murray Bookchin, author of Anarchism, Marxism and the Future of the Left

“A foretaste of the socialist utopia of the future in the present.” —Helmut Gruber, author of Red Vienna: Experiment in Working-Class Culture, 1919–1934

“The insurrection of February 1934 . . . left behind the glorious memory of resistance to fascism by arms and not merely by speeches.” —E.J. Hobsbawm, author of The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991

“Austria was ahead of the times and established a precedent for future revolutionary developments.” —Ilona Duczynska, author of Workers in Arms: The Austrian Schutzbund and the Civil War of 1934

“One of the big and important class struggles in the history of the international workers’ movement.” —Arnold Reisberg, author of Februar 1934: Hintergründe und Folgen

The world of sports is often associated with commercialism, corruption, and reckless competition. Liberals have objected to sport being used for political propaganda, and leftists have decried its role in distracting the masses from the class struggle. Yet, since the beginning of organized sports, athletes, fans, and officials have tried to administer and play it in ways that strengthen, rather than hinder, progressive social change. From the workers' sports movement in the early twentieth century to the civil rights struggle transforming sports in the 1960s to the current global network of grassroots sports clubs, there has been a growing desire to include sports in the struggle for liberation and social justice. It is a struggle that has produced larger-than-life figures like Muhammad Ali and iconic images such as the Black Power salute by Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. It is also a struggle that has seen sport fans in increasing number reclaiming the games they love from undemocratic associations, greedy owners, and corporate interests.

With the help of over a hundred full-color illustrations—from posters and leaflets to paintings and photographs—Playing as if the World Mattered makes this history tangible. Extensive lists of resources, including publications, films, and websites, will allow the reader to explore areas of interest further.

Being the first illustrated history of its kind, Playing as if the World Mattered introduces an understanding of sports beyond chauvinistic jingoism, corporate media chat rooms, and multi-billion-dollar business deals.

Praise:

“Gabriel Kuhn dismantles the myth that sports and politics do not belong together.” —Mats Runvall, Yelah

“Creativity and solidarity are as indispensable in sport as they are in social struggle. If you have any doubt, read this book.” —Wally Rosell, editor of Éloge de la passe: changer le sport pour changer le monde

“Gabriel Kuhn is not concerned with moral reflections about how to approach sports and politics. Instead, he provides practical examples of how sport is already politicized and portrays supporters—and even athletes—as progressive social forces.” —Ekim Çağlar, Flamman

“The iconic black power salute offered up by African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos during their medal ceremony at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City did not occur in isolation; it came in the spirit of similar protest actions at sports events, all around the world. In Playing as if the World Mattered, the reader discovers in brilliant detail what has been true all along—that sports has always been more than a game.” —Sam Tracy, author of Bicycle! A Repair & Maintenance Manifesto

“Gabriel Kuhn has shown again that, contrary to whatever FIFA or the IOC might say, sport and politics are not only keen bedfellows, but have enjoyed a long and lusty partnership.” —Will Simpson, author of Freedom Through Football: The Story of the Easton Cowboys and Cowgirls

Blekingegade is a quiet Copenhagen street. It is also where, in May 1989, the police discovered an apartment that had served Denmark’s most notorious twentieth-century bank robbers as a hideaway for years. The Blekingegade Group members belonged to a communist organization and lived modest lives in the Danish capital. Over a period of almost two decades, they sent millions of dollars acquired in spectacular heists to Third World liberation movements, in particular the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In May 1991, seven of them were convicted and went to prison.

The story of the Blekingegade Group is one of the most puzzling and captivating chapters from the European anti-imperialist milieu of the 1970s and ’80s. Turning Money into Rebellion: The Unlikely Story of Denmark’s Revolutionary Bank Robbers is the first-ever account of the story in English, covering a fascinating journey from anti-war demonstrations in the late 1960s via travels to Middle Eastern capitals and African refugee camps to the group’s fateful last robbery that earned them a record haul and left a police officer dead.

The book includes historical documents, illustrations, and an exclusive interview with Torkil Lauesen and Jan Weimann, two of the group’s longest-standing members. It is a compelling tale of turning radical theory into action and concerns analysis and strategy as much as morality and political practice. Perhaps most importantly, it revolves around the cardinal question of revolutionary politics: What to do, and how to do it?

Praise:

“This book is a fascinating and bracing account of how a group of communists in Denmark sought to aid the peoples of the Third World in their struggles against imperialism and the dire poverty that comes with it. The book contains many valuable lessons as to the practicalities of effective international solidarity, but just as importantly, it is a testament to the intellectual courage of the Blekingegade Group.“ —Zak Cope, author of Dimensions of Prejudice: Towards a Political Economy of Bigotry

“The story of how some pro-Palestinian activists become Denmark’s most successful bank robbers is more exciting than any thriller.“ —Åsa Linderborg, Aftonbladet

“I am convinced that they never even took a nickel for themselves.“ —Jørn Moos, chief investigator in the Blekingegade Case

Bang. The door to your cell is shut. You have survived the arrest, you are mad that you weren’t more careful, you worry that they will get others too, you wonder what will happen to your group and whether a lawyer has been called yet--of course you show none of this. The weapon, the fake papers, your own clothes, all gone. The prison garb and the shoes they’ve thrown at you are too big--maybe because they want to play silly games with you, maybe because they really blow “terrorists” out of proportion in their minds--and the control over your own appearance taken out of your hands. You look around, trying to get an understanding of where you’ll spend the next few years of your life.

Prison Round Trip was first published in German in 2003 as “Einmal Knast und zurück.” The essay’s author, Klaus Viehmann, had been released from prison ten years earlier, after completing a 15-year sentence for his involvement in urban guerilla activities in Germany in the 1970s. The essay was subsequently reprinted in various forums. It is a reflection on prison life and on how to keep one’s sanity and political integrity within the hostile and oppressive prison environment; “survival strategies” are its central theme.

“Einmal Knast und zurück” soon found an audience extending beyond Germany’s borders. Thanks to translations by comrades and radical distribution networks, it has since been eagerly discussed amongst political prisoners from Spain to Greece. This is the first time the text is available to a wider English-speaking audience.

“Klaus’s take on survival strategy tells us we can not only survive thusly but can as well continue to serve the cause of liberation—which are really the same thing. We can be captured without giving in or giving up.” --From the Preface by North American political prisoner Bill Dunne

Over the last couple of decades an ideological battle has raged over the political legacy and cultural symbolism of the “golden age” pirates who roamed the seas between the Caribbean Islands and the Indian Ocean from 1690 to 1725. They are depicted as romanticized villains on the one hand, and as genuine social rebels on the other. Life Under the Jolly Roger examines the political and cultural significance of these nomadic outlaws by relating historical accounts to a wide range of theoretical concepts — reaching from Marshall Sahlins and Pierre Clastres to Mao-Tse Tung and Eric J. Hobsbawm via Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault. The meanings of race, gender, sexuality, and disability in golden age pirate communities are analyzed and contextualized, as are the piratesʼ forms of organization, economy and ethics.

While providing an extensive catalog of scholarly references for the academic reader, this delightful and engaging study is directed at a wide audience and demands no other requirements than a love for pirates, daring theoretical speculation and passionate, yet respectful, inquiry.

Straight edge has persisted as a drug-free, hardcore punk subculture for 25 years. Its political legacy remains ambiguous and it is often associated with self-righteous macho posturing and conservative Puritanism. While certain elements of straight edge culture feed into such perception, the cultureʼs political history is far more complex.

Since straight edgeʼs origins in Washington, D.C. in the early 1980s, it has been linked to radical thought and action by countless individuals, bands, and entire scenes. Sober Living for the Revolution traces this history.

It includes contributions by famed straight edge punk rockers like Ian MacKaye (of Minor Threat/Fugazi), Dennis Lyxzén (Refused/The (International) Noise Conspiracy), Mark Andersen (Dance of Days) and Andy Hurley (Fall Out Boy); legendary bands like ManLiftingBanner and Point of No Return; radical collectives like CrimethInc. and Alpine Anarchist Productions; and numerous other artists and activists dedicated as much to sober living as to the fight for a better world.

“Landauer is the most important agitator of the radical and revolutionary movement in the entire country.” This is how Gustav Landauer is described in a German police file from 1893. Twenty-six years later, Landauer would die at the hands of reactionary soldiers who overthrew the Bavarian Council Republic, a three-week attempt to realize libertariansocialism amidst the turmoil of post-World War I Germany. It was the last chapter in the life of an activist, writer, and mystic who Paul Avrich calls “the most influential German anarchist intellectual of the twentieth century.”

This is the first comprehensive collection of Landauer writings in English. It includes one of his major works, Revolution, 30 additional essays and articles, and a selection of correspondence. The texts cover Landauerʼs entire political biography, from his early anarchism of the 1890s to his philosophical reflections at the turn of the century, the subsequent establishment of the Socialist Bund, his tireless agitation against the war, and the final days among the revolutionaries in Munich. Additional chapters collect Landauerʼs articles on radical politics in the US and Mexico, and illustrate the scope of his writing with texts on corporate capital, language, education, and Judaism. The book includes an extensive introduction, commentary, and bibliographical information, compiled by the editor and translator Gabriel Kuhn.

Soccer has turned into a multi-billion dollar industry. Professionalism and commercialization dominate its global image. Yet the game retains a rebellious side, maybe more so than any other sport co-opted by money makers and corrupt politicians. From its roots in working-class England to political protests by players and fans, and a current radical soccer underground, the notion of football as the "people's game" has been kept alive by numerous individuals, teams, and communities.

This book not only traces this history, but also reflects on common criticisms: soccer ferments nationalism, serves right-wing powers, fosters competitiveness. Acknowledging these concerns, alternative perspectives on the game are explored, down to practical examples of egalitarian DIY soccer!

Soccer vs. the State serves both as an orientation for the politically conscious football supporter and as an inspiration for those who try to pursue the love of the game away from television sets and big stadiums, bringing it to back alleys and muddy pastures.

Erich Mühsam (1878-1934), poet, bohemian, revolutionary, is one of Germany's most renowned and influential anarchists. Born into a middle-class Jewish family, he challenged the conventions of bourgeois society at the turn of the century, engaged in heated debates on the rights of women and homosexuals, and traveled Europe in search of radical communes and artist colonies. He was a primary instigator of the ill-fated Bavarian Council Republic in 1919 and held the libertarian banner high during a Weimar Republic that came under increasing threat by right-wing forces. In 1933, four weeks after Hitler's ascension to power, Mühsam was arrested in his Berlin home. He spent the last sixteen months of his life in detention and died in the Oranienburg Concentration Camp in July 1934.

Mühsam wrote poetry, plays, essays, articles, and diaries. His work unites a burning desire for individual liberation with anarcho-communist convictions, and bohemian strains with syndicalist tendencies. The body of his writings is immense, yet hardly any English translations have been available before now. This collection presents not only Liberating the Society from the State: What is Communist Anarchism?, Mühsam's main political pamphlet and one of the key texts in the history of German anarchism, but also some of his best-known poems, unbending defenses of political prisoners, passionate calls for solidarity with the lumpenproletariat, recollections of the utopian community of Monte Verità, debates on the rights of homosexuals and women, excerpts from his journals, and essays contemplating German politics and anarchist theory as much as Jewish identity and the role of intellectuals in the class struggle.

An appendix documents the fate of Zenzl Mühsam, who, after her husband's death, escaped to the Soviet Union where she spent twenty years in Gulag camps.

The defeat in World War I and the subsequent end of the Kaiserreich threw Germany into turmoil. While the Social Democrats grabbed power, radicals across the country rallied to establish a socialist society under the slogan "All Power to the Councils!" The Spartacus League staged an uprising in Berlin, council republics were proclaimed in Bremen and Bavaria, and workers' revolts shook numerous German towns. The rebellions were crushed by the Social Democratic government with the help of right-wing militias like the notorious Free Corps. This paved the way to a dysfunctional Weimar Republic that witnessed the rise of the National Socialist movement.

The documentary history presented here collects manifestos, speeches, articles, and letters from the German Revolution, introduced and annotated by the editor. Many documents, like the anarchist Erich Mühsam's comprehensive account of the Bavarian Council Republic, are made available in English for the first time. The volume also includes appendixes portraying the Red Ruhr Army that repelled the reactionary Kapp Putsch in 1920, and the communist bandits that roamed Eastern Germany until 1921.

All Power to the Councils! provides a dynamic and vivid picture of a time with long-lasting effects for world history. A time that was both encouraging and tragic.

Events

Latest Blog Entries

Gustav Landauer Exhibition in BerlinWith the 100th anniversary of Landauer’s death approaching, the folks of the Gustav Landauer Denkmalinitiative have curated an exhibition about Landauer in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

The second edition of Soccer vs. the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics is the go-to guide to creating change and experiencing a paradigm shift in your thinking towards the game of football. It’s written by by Gabriel Kuhn, an author that has seen his fair share of controversy. The first edition was a slim 260 pages and drew rave reviews from ISN and just above everyone else all the way back in 2011.

The book is full of surprises. In the early 19th century football was played by future captains of industry and administrators of empire, though this changed in the 1880s when professionalisation attracted young men seeking an escape from factory work. With professional players came working-class crowds keen to watch their mates.

Antifascism, Sports, Sobriety: One of 19 books to Understand Fascism and How It WorksBy Lorraine BerrySignature.com9/17/2018

Julius Deutsch was an Austrian Marxist who opposed the spread of fascism. He organized workers in Austria into proletarian militias. Because he understood the “physicality” of the Nazis, he emphasized physical health and strength among those who were to fight them. He organized sports programs for Austrian workers that would give them the physical skills to resist German fighters. Wehrsport combined cross-country running, shooting sports, martial arts, and other types of physical training as part of its “paramilitary sport.” He also prescribed “healthful” practices, such as abstaining from alcohol, as part of a program that would build up each individual’s stamina and strength, since the battles ahead would be “exhausting.” Deutsch’s objection to the more traditional sports — soccer, for instance — is that young men watched those sports, going to the stadiums to watch other men play but not benefitting from the exercise themselves. Deutsch’s programs took parts of the fascist program of health and strength and re-wrote it for the benefit of workers who would battle Nazis in the streets.

Gabriel Kuhn on modern football and how 'implosion' is the only way the sport can save itselfBy Shirsho DasguptaDoing the RondoOctober 20th, 2017

"Soccer, both in England and in the United States, began in the schools and universities of the affluent. How then did it emerge as a sport that we generally identify with the working classes?

Football started out at schools and universities, but factory owners soon realized its potential in pacifying the work-force: the game channeled workers’ energies into sports rather than protest, it empowered them, and factory teams led to a stronger identification with their employers. All of this applied to players and spectators alike. Besides, football is very easy to play: the rules are simple and you need neither expensive equipment nor special grounds. A game of football can be improvised pretty much anywhere. This is one of the main reasons why it became the world’s most popular sport. Finally, once it was professionalized, it provided one of the few viable career options for working-class folks outside of the factory. Therefore, football did indeed become a working-class sport in the early twentieth century, although it was always controlled by the upper classes."

"I'll bet Austromarxism was not on the tip of your lips. Mine either. However, this intriguing little book came into May Day and touched on topics few talk about. Dave Zirin, the sports lefty, should read it, as should some of the pacifist types on the left. Even our tee-totalers will feel a bit vindicated.

The Working Class Atlas

Events in "Red Vienna" are somewhat unknown on the U.S. left, so this study helps with its extensive bibliography. Lenin, Trotsky, Serge, Bela Kun & Ilona Duczynska all criticized the ideas and methods of the Austrian Social-Democratic Workers Party (SDAP) - Kautsky, Hilferding, Bauer, Adler and their the '2.5 International" - from a Bolshevik point of view..."

"...It is this intersection of theory and action that transforms Turning Money into Rebellion from a historical study of an obscure Danish cadre organization into a book that anyone interested in issues of international solidarity ought to read. Indeed, the questions that Emmanuel and Bettelheim debated, and which the KAK and M-KA sought to answer—of unequal relations between nations, of the revolutionary potential of working classes in imperialist countries, of the means by which international solidarity can be achieved—remain deeply unresolved..."

In conclusion, the documents supplied in this short text are of deep political and ideological significance. The sad journey undertaken by Austro-Marxism – from revolutionary praxis to compliant political parliamentarianism of the post-war Sozialdemokratische Partei – is a familiar one, and its appraisal is clearly beyond the scope of this book. However, if that depressing process can be set aside, and Deutsch’s work examined for intrinsic merit, there is much to discuss, and even admire. Gabriel Kuhn and PM Press have performed a valuable task in shedding light on the literary contribution of a man whose life’s work involved advancing the interests of those who were oppressed by an exploitative economic system. The issues raised here are not simply of interest to the archivist or historian because Deutsch’s observations have a much more immediate, contemporary resonance.

Prospects for Social Democracy in the US: Insights From a Syndicalist in Sweden Originally posted on Truhtout By Enrique Guerrero-López and Adam Weaver April 10th, 2017

"Segments of the left in the US, either as organizations or individuals, called for various levels of tactical engagement with the Sanders campaign, arguing that this is an opportunity to advance socialist politics and potentially build a new party of the left. What are some examples of this being attempted in Europe? How has it played out in practice?

I think we need to distinguish between two questions here: One, when is it time for radicals to support candidates in political elections? Two, what is the long-term political prospect of this?

What I'm trying to get at is the following: There are occasions when the outcome of elections makes a big difference, both for the daily lives of millions of people and the possibilities of radical organizing. I know that many anarchists refuse to vote under all circumstances, and as far as I'm concerned, that's up to them. The "lesser evil" argument certainly isn't always the best. If you only have terrible options, why would you choose any of them? However, fetishizing voter abstention as a demonstration of political superiority or a criterion for anarchist identity is silly. It turns anarchism into a Christian ethics of conscience, rather than a commitment to social change. I can name numerous recent elections here in Europe where it was very important to vote for or, especially, against certain candidates. We live in dangerous times and there is no place for ideological quirks. And as far as the last presidential elections in the US are concerned -- which affect people worldwide, not just in the US -- I would have rather seen Sanders become president than Trump or Clinton, so I don't think there is any shame in people having tried to get him elected...."

"...Whatever the reader's opinion is of Maoism-Third Worldism, the story that is compiled by Kuhn and narrated by Lauesen and Weimann is one of utterly selfless internationalism, and of people who lived their beliefs. The reader cannot help but be inspired by this story of a group who placed themselves at personal risk, amassing enormous amounts of wealth only to donate it to worthy anti-imperialist causes.

There are three basic sections of the book. In the first section, the editor Gabriel Kuhn, presents an introduction to the Blekingegade Group. This is followed by an article from some of the group's members, Niels Jorgensen, Torkil Lauesen, and Jan Weimann. Jorgensen sadly passed away in 2008 but was a key member of the group and contributed significantly to one of the chapters...."

A. Yes, often young anarchists or socialists here do use the words in an uncertain way, as though they mean the same. Settlerism, as we know, is a very specific type of capitalist colonialism. It is the most complete colonialism. A conquest society, where a loyal national population was brought in to both economically populate and be the permanent garrison for capitalism over the conquered territory.

Settlerism has within it the broader phenomena of racism, but is importantly different. The culture is capitalist but twisted further. Sometimes you can see the cultural mark of being a garrison population, like the American white “gun mania.” The ruling class has always supported a heavily armed white citizenry to keep colonized people under the boot. This is their neurotically guilty culture of would-be conquerors and genocidists. Settlerism means that we are always fighting “Americanism” itself, not just some extreme nationalistic form.

The book is worth buying. Kuhn takes straight edge out of a self-imposed ghetto and shows just how diverse and powerful sXe has been in shaping youth resistance cultures globally. From what we read, sXe caused some of the resistance in some scenes, while in other scenes, sXe was, and still is, a strategy for resistance. Sober Living for the Revolution, most importantly, offers multiple paths and examples for people interested in sober living and political militancy.

"Elite sport has a lot to answer for. Rabid consumerism, blind nationalism, rampant cheating, endemic corruption. Just in the last couple of years we’ve witnessed FIFA’s corruption scandal, mass protests in Brazil against expenditure on huge stadia, and the saga of Lance Armstrong. And don’t get me started on the feudal world of professional boxing."

Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy: A ReviewBy JM HielkemaThe Tiger Manifesto

Recommended to me by a friend, Life Under the Jolly Roger proved to be a diverting and informative read that had much more heft than I initially assumed. Though the subject has been both vulgarized and sanitized by innumerable Hollywood adaptations, Golden Age piracy remains a fascinating period in history. Life Under the Jolly Roger is a relatively short but sophisticated and nuanced take on pirate history and myth.

Gabriel Kuhn, an anarchist from Sweden, draws on a range of theorists and historical accounts of piracy, notably Deleuze, Hobsbawm, and, surprisingly (at least to me) practitioners of guerrilla warfare from Che to Mao. The central political question of the book is how present-day radicals should relate to the pirates and their example.

Playing as if the World Mattered: A ReviewBy JJ Amaworo WilsonJJ Amaworo WilsonJuly 17th, 2015

"Elite sport has a lot to answer for. Rabid consumerism, blind nationalism, rampant cheating, endemic corruption. Just in the last couple of years we’ve witnessed FIFA’s corruption scandal, mass protests in Brazil against expenditure on huge stadia, and the saga of Lance Armstrong. And don’t get me started on the feudal world of professional boxing."

Playing as if the World Mattered: A ReviewBy Russell HoldenIdrottsforumOctober 1st, 2015

"...Kuhn has provided a very useful starting point, but the key is to ensure that the essence of his agenda is discussed widely within new and old media so that the mainstream sports fan reflects more on the reasons behind why a myriad of migrants and small number of refugees increasingly populate our favourite and least favourite teams, though not their management structures."

"His 160 pages covers a great deal of ground with example after example of activism threading its way throughout a pantheon of sports, from cycling to something known as radical cheerleading. It is an impressive pulling together of well-known and heretofore generally unknown to the general public, events, and individuals who played roles in the arena of sports activism..."

Our sports book of the quarter? Opportunities to play sport, any sport at any level are inevitably socially constructed. The failure to understand this both narrows the scope of most mainstream sportswriting and at the same time ensures most writers on politics to wilfully ignore sport.

Gabriel Kuhn is an author who would never make either of these cardinal errors. His Playing As If The World Mattered is an illustrated history of sport as activism. Refusing to treat one as the opposite of the other Gabriel weaves together stories and episodes, some familiar, many not, to portray sport as a vital space for and method of human liberation. The writing is effortlessly informative and inspiring while the full colour illustrations do a similar job visually. Together this is a truly great book to savour for a better future as well as to read now to help improve the present, on or off the pitch, track , inside and outside the ring or pool, wherever your sporting fancy takes you.

It's true that, as Noam Chomsky says, sports reinforce irrational attitudes in submission to authority. It's also true that more people spend their time obsessing over sports instead of focusing on politics - that people seem to care more about the exploits of millionaire athletes instead of the lobbying efforts of billionaires, and that only the latter will have a direct effect on their lives and the former won't. And given the corruption and controversies surrounding major sports organizations (FIFA globally, NFL nationally), sports fans could use a little something to feel good about right now, and Kuhn's colorfully illustrated book does the trick. It compiles instances in which sports organizations, teams and athletes have used sport as a populist and progressive platform (including Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Muhammad Ali, skateboarding, radical cheerleading, roller derby and much more!).

At the end of the 1980s five men robbed a cash-in-transit vehicle in Copenhagen, stealing over thirteen million crowns. The subsequent investigation led to the discovery of an apartment in the district of Blekingegade that contained: 'crystal radio receivers, transmitters, and antennas; masks, false beards, and state-of-the-art replicas of police uniforms; numerous false documents and machines to produce them; extensive notes outlining the … robbery and other unlawful activities; and – in a separate room, accessible only through a hidden door – the biggest illegal weapons cache ever found in Denmark.' (3)

Turning Money Into Rebellion, a book edited by Gabriel Kuhn and published by Kersplebedeb and PM Press, is a gripping snap-shot into a unique period of anti-imperialist struggle in the 1960s-1980s. At some places it reads as a political thriller; it’s engaging from the first page to the last. Focused on the so-called “Blekingegade Group,” a small band of undercover revolutionaries in Denmark who committed a large number of robberies so as to funnel money to armed anti-imperialist movements in the third world, the book is significant in that it examines the ways in which committed revolutionaries in that period attempted to support what they believed to be the advent of world revolution.Read More | Buy book now | Download e-Book now | Back to reviews | Back to top

All Power to the Councils: A Reviewby Gary RothInsurgent NotesDecember 24th, 2013

Notwithstanding these criticisms of Comack and Kuhn, their treatments are vastly superior to several recently re-published accounts of the German revolution, in particular Pierre Broué’s exhaustive 1000 page tome, The German Revolution: 1917–1923, originally published in 1971, and Chris Harman’s The Lost Revolution: Germany, 1918–1923, dating back to 1982.[6] Both books are classic accounts of who did what wrong when, as if a historically-vindicated politics might have been possible. In neither account are the councils of real interest, pushed aside in a rush to judge the errors committed by the Communist Party (KPD). The focus on great men (and a few women), political ideologies, and organizational trajectories mirrors in an uncanny fashion an older, stodgy form of historiography, a merger of politics and methodology that has been out of vogue, even if still widely practiced, for some time now. Form and content merge into one, all in the name of a vanguard politics that focuses on leadership and the elite.

All Power to the Councils: A ReviewBy Matthew S. AdamsAnarchist StudiesVolume 2 Number 1pg 110-112

Through judicious footnoting and brief contextual overviews at the beginning of each section, All Power to the Councils! deftly conveys the complex, and often overlapping political allegiances that characterised post-war radicalism in Germany. That Landauer and Mühsam are the subject of particular attention shows that this book is a companion volume to Kuhn’s other two edited collections published by PM Press, Revolution and Other Writingscomprising selections from Landauer’s work, and Liberating Society from the State and Other Writings formed from Mühsam’s texts.

Nevertheless, the book stands alone. Its stress on the multiple strands of politicaldissent that defined the radical terrain in Germany is an important challenge to thedominant historical treatments, and it makes an important contribution by makingthe words of those involved in the Revolution, whatever their stripe, available inEnglish for the first time.

Kuhn is impressive in his global and historical scope, and in acknowledging gender and sexuality questions as well as those of class and race, as he looks at issues ranging from the exploitation of African players to the way the World Cup has been abused politically (varying from the Argentinian junta's outrages in 1978 to FIFA's commerical juggernaut parking on South Africa in 2010). Read More | Buy book now | Download e-Book now | Back to reviews | Back to top

Soccer vs the State does a useful service by reminding us that since football was codified by public school amateurs in the 19th Century, then run by capitalist club owners after the advent of professionalism, it has rarely belonged to the people except in an emotional sense.Read More | Buy book now | Download e-Book now | Back to reviews | Back to topRage Against the MachineSport MagazineJuly 2011

Ever since Sepp 'Envelope' Blatter and his FIFA cabal decided that the 2022 World Cup would be best played out during the unrelenting heat of a Qatar summer, the relationship between football and the world's power-brokers and money-men has been under an increased spotlight. Perfect timing, then, for Soccer vs The Stateby former semi-pro footballer Gabriel Kuhn. As well as examining how football has been exploited, the book also focuses on fans and how those zany foreigners often tie together teams and radical political views. There's fascinating writing on St Pauli, for example, the German club defined by its links to punks, pirates and left-wing politics. One to pick up if you think there's more to footy than replica kits and official snackfoods. Buy book now | Download e-Book now | Back to reviews | Back to topSoccer vs. The StateBy Mathias Ehlers11FreundeApril 2011

Alright, good soul of football, now you have your own classic. Ironic, though, that it is a publisher from the U.S., the home of rigorously commercialized sports, that created this forum for alternative football culture. Hardly any of the contested issues in the world's most popular game is missing, not nationalism, chauvinism, or the permeating commercialization. What we are handed is a broad picture of football's political relevance. Read More | Buy book now | Download e-Book now | Back to reviews | Back to top

Soccer vs. the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics, by Gabriel Kuhn – Remember all the attention that the 2010 World Cup received? Soccer vs. the State is an amazing resource in terms of framing the discussion around the global influence of soccer, particularly for working class people. Gabriel Kuhn takes readers on a journey through the modern evolution of the game and how it has been used by the State as a means of oppression and national identity to how communities have used the sport to push the envelope of social justice and radial transformation. What writer Dave Zirin has done to reclaim US sports as a radical issue, Gabriel Kuhn has done it for the most popular sport in the world. Even if you are not a fan of soccer this book provides important social analysis.Buy book now | Download e-Book now | Back to reviews | Back to top

Like most sports, soccer is riddled with sexism, homophobia and racism. Kuhn describes several efforts by fans and players challenging these negative phenomena. From Germany's Bundnis aktiver Fussballfans (BAFF) to various players who have openly challenged the racism of other fans and players, Kuhn describes and active anti-racist culture within international soccer. He further describes various fan cultures known for their leftist and autonomist politics. Most famous of these are the fans of Hamburg's St. Pauli fussball club. Read more | Buy book now | Download e-Book now | Back to reviews | Back to top

Landauer's written voice makes for easy reading. And, outside of Revolution, clarity and straightforwardness is the rule. This alone would not be enough to recommend the book, but Landauer's combination of socialism and anarchism makes for interesting reading. The pieces where he applies himself to practical matters, or to the analysis of events, are also worth reading; his place in the history of the inter-war workers' councils secures this much. Landauer's work is not a systematic account of non-state socialism, but it is an interesting step in the historical evolution of such accounts, married to a sound awareness of the importance of instilling what might elsewhere be called an 'ethos'.

Landauer's written voice makes for easy reading. And, outside of Revolution, clarity and straightforwardness is the rule. This alone would not be enough to recommend the book, but Landauer's combination of socialism and anarchism makes for interesting reading. The pieces where he applies himself to practical matters, or to the analysis of events, are also worth reading; his place in the history of the inter-war workers' councils secures this much. Landauer's work is not a systematic account of non-state socialism, but it is an interesting step in the historical evolution of such accounts, married to a sound awareness of the importance of instilling what might elsewhere be called an 'ethos'.

Today, Gustav Landauer is best remembered as a radical leader of the short-lived Bavarian Council Republic who was killed by reactionary soldiers in 1919. During his lifetime, this now half-forgotten figure was the leading voice of anarchism in Germany. Unlike most anarchists, however, Landauer was unusual in his distaste for violence and his distrust of the masses. This is not to say that he was not an opponent of the state (in general) or the German Empire (in particular). In this, he resembled Friedrich Nietzsche. In his belief in the importance of small communities based on individual cooperation, he drew on Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Although Landauer made considerable demands on his readers (his anarchism was accompanied by metaphysical speculation and at times, polemical exaggeration), he reads well today. But for many readers, the best portions of this thoroughly edited, well-translated anthology will be his attacks on the Social Democratic Party from the time of the Erfurt Program to the creation of the provisional government of Germany at the end of WWI. Kabdayer saw the party as hopelessly bureaucratic and timid. This work merits the attention of all students of Germany in the age of William II. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Most levels/librariesBuy book now | Download e-Book now | Back to reviews | Back to top

Gustav Landauer is perhaps the most important German speaking anarchist of the late 19th and early 20th century, but he is not well known in the English speaking world. Despite four book length studies of Landauer and a few translations, there has never been a major collection of his work in English. Gabriel Kuhn and PM Press have changed that.Read More | Buy book now | Download e-Book now | Back to reviews | Back to top

Kuhn succeeds in translating Landauer’s highly idiosyncratic German, full of his own unique terminology, into a clear and easy English, while preserving the subtle nuances of the original text. His English version of Landauer’s “Revolution” is even clearer to this Yiddish speaker than Steinberg’s Yiddish translation of 1933.Read more | Buy book now | Download e-Book now | Back to reviews | Back to top

For Landauer, the notion of “realization” — in other words, of concrete expressions of our ideals in the here and now — were central. And not just in the sense of individual righteousness in our daily conduct: The establishment of self-sufficient rural settlements was at the heart of his understanding of socialism. Whether we follow the settlement idea or not, I believe that the emphasis on building concrete alternatives to oppressive and exploitative structures is as important as ever. Of course it is questionable whether a network of independent settlements can ever extend to a point where the state becomes unnecessary; however, if we insist that a different world is possible, we need tangible examples of what it can look like.Read more | Buy book now | Download e-Book now | Back to reviews | Back to top

Interview with Gabriel Kuhn: The State as a Social Relationship: Gustav Landauer Revived

DN: He was quite opposed to that kind of rationalism, wasn’t he?GK: Absolutely. He believed that on that basis you couldn’t develop socialism because people wouldn’t really feel connected to one another. To do so you’d have to, and this is where it becomes complicated because it’s mystical, discover the inner essence of humanity that lies within each individual. You have to turn inwards first and discover this inner essence, and then you will perceive humankind in a different sense and approach people differently.Read more | Buy book now | Download e-Book now | Back to reviews | Back to top

Kuhn’s premise strikes a stark contrast with prior treatments of this subject matter. Where previous film and written works have alluded to straight edge and political themes tangentially, they’ve generally done so with little interest or considerable confusion. Worse still, the documentary and sociological angles from which straight edge has consistently been tackled tend toward compartmentalization and self-reference and take economic and political forces for granted. According to these accounts, we’re to believe the phenomena itself is the context. Its relationship to anything beyond or prior to it has (with somewhat stunning consistency) been deferred or dismissed.

The book explores the crossroads of straight edge and radical politics. Straight edge is a hardcore punk subculture defined by drug-free living that emerged in the early 1980s in Washington, DC, and soon became a global phenomenon. In its thirty-year history it has taken on different forms and gone through a number of eras. Politically, it has often been associated with self-righteous moralism and conservative puritanism, but that's far from the whole story.

While all other books covered in this article have been limited to a specific city, country or continent, Sober living is the first to attempt a more internationalist perspective, deliberately collecting stories and views from Europe, South America and North America, and in the process often dealing with the differences and dynamics between these scenes. Many famous scenesters (Ian MacKaye, Dennis Lyxzén, Robert Refuse and many more) are interviewed and well known articles re-printed, but a lot of space is also given to less known activists of different kinds.

Sober Living in Classic Rock MagazineBy Jo KendallClassic Rock MagazineIf rock'n'roll is your business - and business has tended to be pretty good for the past 40 years or so - there's little chance you will have examined punk rock in all its angry, mutating glory. But if you're curious about the post- Pistols scene that drop-kicked punk into hardcore, straight edge and the oft-perceived po-faced social activism behind them, this book is for you.

Hardcore Punk, Straigh Edge, and Radical PoliticsBy Gabriel KuhnJuly 20th, 2010 Basically, it's about tracing the history of relations between straight edge and radical politics – by this I mean progressive, anti-authoritarian, egalitarian politics. Straight edge has often been associated with dogmatism, moralism, self-righteousness, and puritanism. Unfortunately, some self-identified straight edge folks have given reason to this, although the extent to which these attitudes have been characteristic for the straight edge scene has been grossly exaggerated.

In November 2009, PM Press released Gabriel Kuhn’s Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy, a study analyzing the most legendary pirate era from ethnographic, sociological and political angles. Gabriel Kuhn is a writer and translator who currently resides in Sweden. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Nora Räthzel, sociologist at the University of Umeå, Sweden, has interviewed him about his upcoming book.